August 13, 2025 • 28 mins
Pacers head coach Rick Carlisle joins us to discuss what he’s been up to since the season ended and what he’s been up to this summer, has he flown any planes this offseason?, last time he spoke to Haliburton, the impact of last season’s run to the Finals, how much of the postseason run has he re-watched, naming Mathurin the starting 2- guard next season, what is a “rat game”?, Myles Turner’s departure to the Bucks, Jarace Walker’s health and growth heading into next season, the rest of his summer vacation
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, good Wednesday morning to you. Little overnight rain will
greet you if you haven't been outside this morning. Looks
to be decent temperature wise, if you haven't made to
the State Fair or one more colts training camp. Practice
coming up tomorrow shouldn't be too too hot. But let's
head to the payloft lockers hotline right now. The NBA
schedule gets fully announced coming up tomorrow. We did see
(00:21):
opening night inside a gamebridge field House announced yesterday it
will be Pacers and Thunder coming up a nationally televised game.
And to talk more about that. He is the head
coach of the Indiana Pacers. Our summer chat if you will.
Instead of Tuesdays at eight, how about Wednesday at eight?
He is Rick Carlisle coach. Happy summer. Good morning to you.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
How are you?
Speaker 3 (00:42):
I'm all right, what's happening?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
We're living life. Before we get into maybe some basketball combo.
What's what's been on the summer agenda for you? An
any great trips, anything you've looked forward to doing this
summer that you've gotten accomplished.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Yeah, some some moving around to different places, but it's
but it's been good and you know it's a very
short summer obviously, because when you play the last you
played your last game of the season on the last
possible day of the finals. It's, uh, the summer, it
is pretty short.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
I mean to ask you this.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
And and I don't know if you met moving around,
have you met within the Indy area, But when you
have been in Indy obviously you were, you know, the
head coach a couple of decades ago. And now have
you always lived in the same area or do you
have a particular like a part of town that you
really enjoy.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Well, we've we've lived in three different parts of town.
When I was first there as an assistant, we lived
in a pocket of homes called Golden Hill, which was
down kind of adjacent to Woodstock Country Club. It's it's
kind of like thirty eighth and Martin Luther King area.
It's a kind of an eclectic group of homes that's older.
(02:04):
That's pretty cool. And interestingly, when when I came in
nineteen ninety seven to work with Larry Bird, Dick Harder
also came with us, and we ended up buying a
house that Dick Harder and his wife Mary had lived
in when he was an assistant coach with Jack Ramsey
(02:26):
in the mid eighties, and so it was kind of
a coincidental thing. And the house also had been owned
at one time by former mayor Hudnutt, so the house
had some interesting history. The second time we were in
the forty fourth and Penn area, I guess it's Murdy
and Kessler and then you know, now we're up north
in the Carmel area. So yeah, I'm mixing it up.
(02:49):
But I have enjoyed all three all three spots.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Where can be pilot lessons As of late.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
I've I've flown a little bit, but no, no lessons.
I'm not I'm not current right now. I've got a few.
I've got a few jet hours this summer. But that's
that simply means sitting in the left seat with with
a highly trained instructor on my in the r in
the right seat, and you know, I'm doing the controls.
(03:20):
I'm doing takeoffs and landings and stuff like that. And uh,
you know I could do that stuff, but I would
I certainly would not be doing it by myself.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
I respect that. I respect that.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
Pivoting more to the basketball side of things, Uh, we
see that Tyice is making some uh, progress throughout his
Achilles rehab and I believe he'll be out of the
boot fairly soon if he isn't already.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
So have you spoken to him recently?
Speaker 4 (03:47):
And where is he at in his recovery just mentally
and physically right now?
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Yeah, I have spoken to him recently. I've spoken to
him quite a few times this summer. He's in he's
in great spirits. He's just you know, he always has
a positive outlook on things. And you guys saw where
he and uh, his girlfriend Jay got engaged. That was
pretty spectacular event that you know, they they head over
(04:16):
social media, which is pretty cool. That happened up in
uh In Names, Iowa at their alma mater, and that
was a complete surprise, but uh, he pulled it off
their and in grand fashion. So congrats to them. But
this is I don't know, this is all gone by fast.
You know, it's been a month and a half already,
(04:37):
maybe even a little more than that. And this thing's
gonna fly by. This season coming up is gonna fly by.
You know, time is is flying by, and before you
know it, he'll be back, you know, and things are
still cutting edge down the medical world that these guys,
you know, now now don't just recover from this kind
(04:58):
of injury. They a full, full recovery, and so we're
seeing it with Isaiah Jackson and James Wiseman. Those guys
have been really busting their butts, you know, during their
entire rehab. And yesterday Isaiah did some five on five
work in the gym and he's doing real well and
(05:20):
Wiseman is you know, they're they're right about neck and
neck in terms of where their recovery is at. Wiseman
maybe slightly ahead, you know, because his surgery I think
was eight or ten days ahead of Isaiah's. But but
the hope is that those guys will be ready to
go come training camp.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
So Summer Chat with Rick Carlisle normally Tuesdays at eight.
It is a Wednesday morning, and we appreciate the coach
hopping on with us here. Really enjoyed you with Caitlin
Cooper on her podcast last week, Coach, and in that
you mentioned to her that, you know, at different times
this summer you've had people either randomly contact you or
(05:58):
just come up to you and say how really inspirational
the run was all the way to the finals into
Game seven, last year. Do you think, like anything in
particular is why that run has stood out to so
many people? Not, I guess just purely Pacer fans, Like,
was there an element? Have people shared with you a
particular reason why it's that run that has felt you know,
(06:21):
people the need or the urge I guess to go
up to you and and and say that.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Yeah, you know, when you run into you know, civilians,
non you know, non NBA people, they just you know,
they just talk about you know, these are word inspired.
You know, it was it was inspirational. It you know,
(06:48):
it's just uh, restored my faith in the NBA. You'res
some things like that, you know, like to see a
team play that hard and that together and all that,
and it's is this is all the credit goes to
the players for this. And so you know, talking to
NBA people, you know, running into people in Vegas, I
(07:10):
was on a zoom a couple of days ago with
our Executive committee of the Coaches Association, along with some
members of the Competition Committee, and and in fact I
ran into an assistant coach with one of the Eastern
Conference teams about five days ago down here where we
(07:30):
are in South Carolina, and and he said, you know,
you got you guys. You guys are changing the game,
changing the way game is played, the full court pressure,
the way people are looking at roster construction, all that
kind of stuff. And so, uh and I've gotten that
comment or sentiment on several occasions. And so obviously our
(07:55):
fans should be very proud, our players should be very proud.
You know, myself and coaching staff is proud. But you know,
the work is, the work goes on and it never
gets easier. And to set a standard is one thing.
To maintain a standard and then and then work to
(08:16):
increase that standard is something totally different.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
You obviously have to live in a world where pretty
soon you got to fully fully turn the page, and
maybe already have. But have you found yourself at any
point in this offseason going back and watching any part
of that run, or maybe thinking back on any part
of it that really stands out to you?
Speaker 2 (08:37):
I mean, so many games.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
I was talking with somebody yesterday about it, and it's like,
it wasn't just that you got to Game seven, it
was really cinema. It was like Hollywood type eight points
to nine seconds. It seemingly happened a handful of times
throughout that run. Have you gone back and watch any
of it, anything stand out? Or is it fully turned
the page?
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Yeah? I watched. I did not watch, well, I should
say I watched. I watched the beginning of Game seven.
I watched the first I guess it was four and
a half minutes where Tyree ship in his third three
and they call time out and I just shut it
(09:20):
off there. I didn't really want to see anymore. But
you know, you watch all the games obviously, you know,
as you go go through that, and I thought back
to it. You know, there have been some things I've
looked at this summer. You know, when we acquired Jay Hoff,
I went back and looked at some of the minutes
where he played against us when he's a Memphis because
(09:42):
we played them also in a preseason game last year.
And so yeah, I mean it's that, but I'm I'm
usually pretty good at turning the page and moving forward.
You know. It's if things if things do ind in
a difficult way, which just it's it's just is uh,
it's it's just to me. It's it's this great motivation
(10:06):
to jump into the next thing. And so the next
thing is is a year where you know, there's going
to be amazing opportunity for our team, our guys. You know,
expectations around the world, around the NBA world are going
to be significantly lower. I think we've seen that with
some of the Vegas predictions and wins and all that
(10:27):
kind of stuff. But this is that's why we play
the games, you know, so we're looking forward to it.
Speaker 4 (10:32):
Rick Carlisle, head coach of the Pacers, joined us on
the Pale Stickers Hotline. Rick, you appeared on Kellen Coover's
podcast what you already talked about? But in that same podcast,
you mentioned that the starting two guard position is Benedict
Matherin's to lose, and you mentioned that he's a natural scorer,
and within that answer you also mentioned that he's a
that he can score and get budgets in a rat game.
(10:54):
And who were asking, I think last week, what is
a rat game? Number one and then number two? Uh
do you see this?
Speaker 2 (11:01):
How do you use this opportunity for banding mathering?
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Well, first of all, if you guys are not subscribed
to basketball, she wrote on Patreon, you're making a big mistake.
In fact for this, I might even I might even
pay for both of your subscriptions. I have such great
belief that this would be as knowledgeable as you guys are.
(11:24):
This would this would increase your knowledge of the NBA
and particularly the Pacers in an exponential fashion. I mean,
what Caitlin is doing with her site is really is
really amazing, the detail, you know, the writing. I think
I mentioned on the podcast that you know, she's been
approached by multiple NBA teams that have tried to hire her,
(11:49):
but she is she stayed true to her mission, which
is to study the pacers at the most meticulous level.
She loves writing and a great writer. And you know,
every time we play a game, there's a there's a
story that comes out. If you subscribe to her site,
it comes out, it comes directly to your email, and
(12:11):
then usually there's a podcast that follows, you know. So
I'm I'm really I'm really in awe of what she's
doing there, and so I would encourage you guys to subscribe,
or anyone to subscribe to that matter.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Anyway.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Yeah, So the the question about Ben, Yeah, you know, Ben,
it's important to Ben that to be a starter. I
know that, you know, he's told me that you guys
can see that, you know, with the way that he plays.
So yeah, it's you know why why wait, you know
he's the starter on day one. You know. The caveat
(12:51):
to that is that he's got to continue to move
his game in the direction of being a highly functioning
part of the Indian Ana Pacers. And that's gonna that's
gonna mean that he's got to continue to play faster
and faster. He's got to run faster, run harder. He's
gotta he's got to play off with quick decisions. He's
(13:11):
going to be guarding a lot of great players, you know,
And you think about it with Tyree's being out this
year and Nemhar the starting point. So you know, Andrew
Nemar guarded the best perimeter player almost always. He's either
here Ani Smith. But you know, with with Tyres out,
(13:34):
you know Andrew, it's gonna put him on different matchups
sort of organically. And now Ben is going to be
guarding guys that are better players. So this would be
a great challenge. You know, Ben told us when when
he was drafted that he wanted to be coach hard,
he wanted to be great, you know, and and and everything,
(13:54):
and and I've always took him at his word. You know,
we have high standards for him. Uh, but he's gotta
he's gotta, he's gotta, he's gotta keep he's got to
keep pushing it. He's got to keep pushing it. You know,
his gifts are pretty clear. I mean, he's a great
transition player. He shoots the ball long range with ease.
(14:16):
I mean he shoots the ball from thirty five feet,
you know, just just he can just pop up and
just you know, flip in a jump shot, and so
you know, those those are the big strengths to his
offensive game. And so you know the situations where he
at times gets into trouble, driving into crowd, stuff like that,
(14:38):
you know that stuff's got to go away, and we're
gonna work with him hard on that. He's having a
great summer. He's busting his body, he's gonna he's actually
up in I think he's in Toronto right now spending
time with Team Canada. I don't think he's participating in
the World Championships, but he's there. And I don't know
that he's participating in the World Couts. Buddy is there
(15:02):
watching if he's not participating, and and he's uh, I believe,
you know, I would certainly have to believe that he's
a big part of Team Can in the future. So anyway,
all good stuff on Ben Mathern. I know that Kevin
is the president of the Ben Mathern Fan Club indeed,
and so uh so it's so there, so there we go.
(15:23):
And so as president of the fan club, you should
you should be pushing all the all of your all
of your members to uh to hit him on social
media about the things that he needs to do to
continue to work to be great.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Move that to the top of the monthly meeting coming
up here next week.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Well, I will say this, ritt, I subscribe to basketball.
Speaker 4 (15:41):
She wrote, actually have a shirt as well, Kaitlin Cooper
so been a long time subscriber for probably over a
year and a half or two years at this point.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
And one quick follow up, what is a rat game?
Speaker 3 (15:51):
Can?
Speaker 4 (15:51):
We were debating this last week and we have no
idea how you view that or what that means.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
Yeah, I mean no disrespect to rats, but yeah, it's
a it's a term. It's a term to me that
that means. Let's let's say you're playing a team that's
a very hard playing, physical team, that does a lot
of switching and does a lot of things to junk
up the game, and it's just gonna be it's gonna
(16:21):
be a game that looks like it's a little detached
and a little clunky on a lot of on a
lot of levels. I mean, he he's a guy that
is in the in the flow or non flow of
a game like that. He's gonna find ways to get
the ball in the basket and get to the free
throw line. And it's a it's really it's a great
compliment to him. And so you know, look, we saw
(16:45):
it a little bit in game seven of the of
the finals. I mean it was physical, there was a
lot of switching, and he ended up being our leading
scorer in the finals. But you know, we don't we
don't want to see a bunch of games where he's
the leading scorer and we lose. You know, we we
we want him to keep developing the acumen to be
(17:06):
a great scorer, but to be but to be a
part of the team's success and to you know, meld
those those individual abilities with the the style that our
that our team has developed, which so many people have
have become smitten.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
With, uh with the important caveat of no disrespect to
rats Rick Carlisle with us here on the Payless Slickers
hotline just a few more minutes. We appreciate the Pacers
head coach joined us here for a summer combo. This
is our first chat since really, I guess right after
the playoffs, and obviously the first big bit of news
in the offseason was Miles Turner joining the Bucks. Where
(17:46):
you as stunned, as it sounded like Kevin Pritchard was
when he found out that news.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
Yeah, I was. I was surprised. I was surprised, But
it's pretty clear what happened. You know, Milwaukee the way
to come up with enough cap space in a very
short period of time. It's my guess that that they
did all this, you know, they did it by waving
Lillard and stretching him and all that kind of stuff
(18:13):
created whatever it was, twenty some million extra in space.
And and I think what I think what happened was,
you know, they they talked to Miles of agent or
Miles and his agent, and said, look, we have this offer.
This is a number, you know, presumably a number that
(18:33):
you guys are trying to get to. We need to
know that if we offer this, you guys are gonna
take it and you can't shop it, you know, And
that's that's a that's a frequent you know, a tactic
of of negotiation. And so pretty clearly they they took
they took the offer. It's their right to do it.
(18:56):
We'll certainly miss Miles. You I know that there were
a lot of there was a lot of talk about,
you know, some of the some of the things that
he said as he left. But I just I just feel, look,
we're gonna give Miles the benefit of the doubt on
all that stuff. The guy is the guy was a
was a pacer through and through for ten years. He
(19:20):
lived and breathed that he disregarded trade rumors. You know,
when they when they happened, he was all about he
was all about Indiana all the time. Sometimes things in
the business aspect of basketball become super dynamic and nuclear,
and they happened on a you know, on they turn
(19:44):
on a dime. But you know, everything that Kevin Pritchard
said is absolutely true. This this this franchise was was
ready to go as far into the taxes as we
needed to keep him. But you know, things can change quickly.
They did. He's moved on. It's a division rival, so
(20:07):
there's always gonna be plenty to talk about there. But
Kevin and Chad were able to acquire Jay Huff, who's
certainly not the experienced level Miles Turner is not the
exact same kind of player, but he can make threes,
and he can protect and protect the rim, and he
can do some other things that are strengths of his
and so we feel like he's a piece that can
(20:29):
that can work for us. We don't know exactly who's
gonna start at five, but I've had seasons where I've
had three centers and pretty much consistently played three centers
every game. It was I think it was two thousand
and thirteen fourteen with the Dallas Mavericks. Sam Dallenbar was
(20:50):
our starter. Dwan Blair and Brandon Wright played back up,
and there were way more game many There were way
more games than there weren't where all three of those
guys played. And so you know, maybe the center position
is more of a Swiss army knife type thing. We'll
(21:11):
have to see and uh, but we have we have Huff,
we have Isaiah Jackson, we have Wiseman Tony Bradley's going
to be in camp, So there's four guys that are
going to be slugging it out for the you know,
presumably three center spots. So as we get into it,
we'll see what's what. But you know, nothing but love
from from my perspective. From on Miles Turner. I had
(21:33):
a really nice, nice conversation with him after, you know,
after he made the decision to leave, and uh, what
a lovable guy.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
So we'll miss him last one, coach, and again, thank
you for the time. Unfortunately we didn't get to see
him late in that playoff run due to injury, but
certainly minutes now with that second unit with Benedict going
to the starting lineup, are there for a guy like
Jarris Walker. How is he doing health wise? And where
do you want to see growth for him entering I
(22:05):
believe his third season.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
Yeah, his health is is is good right now. You
know that that was a serious injury that he suffered
in Game six, and I think it's important to note
that Jar's had a very productive year. He played I
think over fifteen and a half minutes a game. You know,
(22:28):
he played very effectively during certain stretches of the playoffs.
He was a big factor in Game four at Milwaukee,
where you know, we were able to get ourselves in
a position to steal a road game that was a
that was a big deal. And you know, he played
well throughout the year. And so the big things for
(22:50):
him are going to be conditioning, motor, toughness, rebounding, defense,
and in a real high degree of understanding of the
importance of possession of the ball. And that's not just him,
that's everybody. I think with what we're going into this year,
(23:11):
you know, we're going to be without a guy in
Tyrese who's historically great with his ability to do amazing
things on the basketball floor, creating pace, scoring, getting the
ball of the rim, hitting floaters, throwing it ahead to teammates,
(23:33):
getting assists, and with the usage rate that he has,
his ability to have security with the ball and not
turn the ball over is like you know, has been
has been historic, and so our team is going to
have to really develop an even greater understanding and appreciation
(23:55):
of the importance of possession. But in a year like this,
so we have coming up, Jarrius is a very important
guy because he can play multiple positions really including point guard.
I mean, you know, he handles the ball that well,
but I want I want to see him be able
to get a rebound at one end and put on
(24:16):
the burners and go coast to coast with speed and
attack the rim at the other. I think he has
the ability to do that. So I know he's working
on those those that those things along with a lot
of other things. But it took him a good two
months before he was back on the court going on
and so, uh, it's going to be an active end
(24:39):
of the summer for him. But you know, he's people
should be excited. People should be excited about Johnny Furfey
after watching him in the Summer League. I think furfy
is another guy that you know, he's he's a lot
like Ben Sheppard. He's a he's a he's a seamless
fit into our our system. He runs, he rebounds, he
(25:02):
passes it, he moves it. He's a great cutter. He
doesn't need the ball to be effective, you know. And he's, uh,
he's a lunch pale guy.
Speaker 4 (25:11):
Man.
Speaker 3 (25:11):
He's he's going to work so and some of the
stuff that that he did in the Summer League, you know,
some of the dunks, you guys saw those pretty cool,
pretty pretty, pretty awesome stuff, and so he's become a
fan favorite. And then we've got the two rookies. You know,
we've got Peter and and Jones. We like those guys
a lot. Both of them improved as the summer league
went on, So a lot of opportunity, you know, a
(25:35):
lot of excitement from my perspective. We'll see what the
schedule shows tomorrow. The good news is on opening night
we at least we get Oklahoma City and a back
to back. You know, they're getting they're getting their rings
the night before, and so we'll have to try to
figure out a way to take advantage of.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
That last last one.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
Then again, we appreciate the time. What's left about a
month ish to go in the off seasons or anything,
and you're looking forward to away from the floor before
training camp starts up. I assume late September.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
Well, Abby Carlisle arrives tonight down here where we are,
and she spent the summer taking some summer classes in
New York City at NYU, and so she'll be down
here for a week or so, and then we'll drive
her down to I should say, up to Charlottesville and
we'll spend some time there and then eventually meander back
(26:30):
to Indianapolis. We're really looking forward to to getting back
and getting going. But you know, it's it's been it's
been quite a year. If you go back a full
year to you know where we are now. So you know,
we're mid August. You think about mid August twenty twenty four,
(26:51):
and you know the way everybody looked at last season,
you know, coming off the conference finals, there was anticipation,
and then you know, we got into the season and
then it was we were ten and fifteen and we
were banged up, and you know, it didn't seemed to
be a whole lot of good stuff happening. And then
(27:12):
you know, we started to get healthy, and you know,
Nemar came back, and you know, we we went from there.
We won three games on the on the road to
uh to get to five hundred at Christmas, pretty much
similar thing we did in the previous year, and then
a lot of great things happened. So this year is
(27:32):
is another mystery at this point, but we're looking forward
to putting the pieces together.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
Well, we got this text during the convos. Please tell
Rick this run inspired me and my group of friends
to get back in the gym and start hooping again,
so the inspiration is impacted the local men's leagues here
in the great state of Indiana. Coach enjoyed the time
with abby safe travels back up here a little bit
later in September and greatly appreciate the time. Thank you.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
Cheers guys make caure
Well, good Wednesday morning to you. Little overnight rain will
greet you if you haven't been outside this morning. Looks
to be decent temperature wise, if you haven't made to
the State Fair or one more colts training camp. Practice
coming up tomorrow shouldn't be too too hot. But let's
head to the payloft lockers hotline right now. The NBA
schedule gets fully announced coming up tomorrow. We did see
(00:21):
opening night inside a gamebridge field House announced yesterday it
will be Pacers and Thunder coming up a nationally televised game.
And to talk more about that. He is the head
coach of the Indiana Pacers. Our summer chat if you will.
Instead of Tuesdays at eight, how about Wednesday at eight?
He is Rick Carlisle coach. Happy summer. Good morning to you.
Speaker 2 (00:41):
How are you?
Speaker 3 (00:42):
I'm all right, what's happening?
Speaker 1 (00:44):
We're living life. Before we get into maybe some basketball combo.
What's what's been on the summer agenda for you? An
any great trips, anything you've looked forward to doing this
summer that you've gotten accomplished.
Speaker 3 (01:00):
Yeah, some some moving around to different places, but it's
but it's been good and you know it's a very
short summer obviously, because when you play the last you
played your last game of the season on the last
possible day of the finals. It's, uh, the summer, it
is pretty short.
Speaker 2 (01:21):
I mean to ask you this.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
And and I don't know if you met moving around,
have you met within the Indy area, But when you
have been in Indy obviously you were, you know, the
head coach a couple of decades ago. And now have
you always lived in the same area or do you
have a particular like a part of town that you
really enjoy.
Speaker 3 (01:39):
Well, we've we've lived in three different parts of town.
When I was first there as an assistant, we lived
in a pocket of homes called Golden Hill, which was
down kind of adjacent to Woodstock Country Club. It's it's
kind of like thirty eighth and Martin Luther King area.
It's a kind of an eclectic group of homes that's older.
(02:04):
That's pretty cool. And interestingly, when when I came in
nineteen ninety seven to work with Larry Bird, Dick Harder
also came with us, and we ended up buying a
house that Dick Harder and his wife Mary had lived
in when he was an assistant coach with Jack Ramsey
(02:26):
in the mid eighties, and so it was kind of
a coincidental thing. And the house also had been owned
at one time by former mayor Hudnutt, so the house
had some interesting history. The second time we were in
the forty fourth and Penn area, I guess it's Murdy
and Kessler and then you know, now we're up north
in the Carmel area. So yeah, I'm mixing it up.
(02:49):
But I have enjoyed all three all three spots.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Where can be pilot lessons As of late.
Speaker 3 (02:58):
I've I've flown a little bit, but no, no lessons.
I'm not I'm not current right now. I've got a few.
I've got a few jet hours this summer. But that's
that simply means sitting in the left seat with with
a highly trained instructor on my in the r in
the right seat, and you know, I'm doing the controls.
(03:20):
I'm doing takeoffs and landings and stuff like that. And uh,
you know I could do that stuff, but I would
I certainly would not be doing it by myself.
Speaker 2 (03:31):
I respect that. I respect that.
Speaker 4 (03:33):
Pivoting more to the basketball side of things, Uh, we
see that Tyice is making some uh, progress throughout his
Achilles rehab and I believe he'll be out of the
boot fairly soon if he isn't already.
Speaker 2 (03:45):
So have you spoken to him recently?
Speaker 4 (03:47):
And where is he at in his recovery just mentally
and physically right now?
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Yeah, I have spoken to him recently. I've spoken to
him quite a few times this summer. He's in he's
in great spirits. He's just you know, he always has
a positive outlook on things. And you guys saw where
he and uh, his girlfriend Jay got engaged. That was
pretty spectacular event that you know, they they head over
(04:16):
social media, which is pretty cool. That happened up in
uh In Names, Iowa at their alma mater, and that
was a complete surprise, but uh, he pulled it off
their and in grand fashion. So congrats to them. But
this is I don't know, this is all gone by fast.
You know, it's been a month and a half already,
(04:37):
maybe even a little more than that. And this thing's
gonna fly by. This season coming up is gonna fly by.
You know, time is is flying by, and before you
know it, he'll be back, you know, and things are
still cutting edge down the medical world that these guys,
you know, now now don't just recover from this kind
(04:58):
of injury. They a full, full recovery, and so we're
seeing it with Isaiah Jackson and James Wiseman. Those guys
have been really busting their butts, you know, during their
entire rehab. And yesterday Isaiah did some five on five
work in the gym and he's doing real well and
(05:20):
Wiseman is you know, they're they're right about neck and
neck in terms of where their recovery is at. Wiseman
maybe slightly ahead, you know, because his surgery I think
was eight or ten days ahead of Isaiah's. But but
the hope is that those guys will be ready to
go come training camp.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
So Summer Chat with Rick Carlisle normally Tuesdays at eight.
It is a Wednesday morning, and we appreciate the coach
hopping on with us here. Really enjoyed you with Caitlin
Cooper on her podcast last week, Coach, and in that
you mentioned to her that, you know, at different times
this summer you've had people either randomly contact you or
(05:58):
just come up to you and say how really inspirational
the run was all the way to the finals into
Game seven, last year. Do you think, like anything in
particular is why that run has stood out to so
many people? Not, I guess just purely Pacer fans, Like,
was there an element? Have people shared with you a
particular reason why it's that run that has felt you know,
(06:21):
people the need or the urge I guess to go
up to you and and and say that.
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Yeah, you know, when you run into you know, civilians,
non you know, non NBA people, they just you know,
they just talk about you know, these are word inspired.
You know, it was it was inspirational. It you know,
(06:48):
it's just uh, restored my faith in the NBA. You'res
some things like that, you know, like to see a
team play that hard and that together and all that,
and it's is this is all the credit goes to
the players for this. And so you know, talking to
NBA people, you know, running into people in Vegas, I
(07:10):
was on a zoom a couple of days ago with
our Executive committee of the Coaches Association, along with some
members of the Competition Committee, and and in fact I
ran into an assistant coach with one of the Eastern
Conference teams about five days ago down here where we
(07:30):
are in South Carolina, and and he said, you know,
you got you guys. You guys are changing the game,
changing the way game is played, the full court pressure,
the way people are looking at roster construction, all that
kind of stuff. And so, uh and I've gotten that
comment or sentiment on several occasions. And so obviously our
(07:55):
fans should be very proud, our players should be very proud.
You know, myself and coaching staff is proud. But you know,
the work is, the work goes on and it never
gets easier. And to set a standard is one thing.
To maintain a standard and then and then work to
(08:16):
increase that standard is something totally different.
Speaker 1 (08:21):
You obviously have to live in a world where pretty
soon you got to fully fully turn the page, and
maybe already have. But have you found yourself at any
point in this offseason going back and watching any part
of that run, or maybe thinking back on any part
of it that really stands out to you?
Speaker 2 (08:37):
I mean, so many games.
Speaker 1 (08:38):
I was talking with somebody yesterday about it, and it's like,
it wasn't just that you got to Game seven, it
was really cinema. It was like Hollywood type eight points
to nine seconds. It seemingly happened a handful of times
throughout that run. Have you gone back and watch any
of it, anything stand out? Or is it fully turned
the page?
Speaker 3 (08:59):
Yeah? I watched. I did not watch, well, I should
say I watched. I watched the beginning of Game seven.
I watched the first I guess it was four and
a half minutes where Tyree ship in his third three
and they call time out and I just shut it
(09:20):
off there. I didn't really want to see anymore. But
you know, you watch all the games obviously, you know,
as you go go through that, and I thought back
to it. You know, there have been some things I've
looked at this summer. You know, when we acquired Jay Hoff,
I went back and looked at some of the minutes
where he played against us when he's a Memphis because
(09:42):
we played them also in a preseason game last year.
And so yeah, I mean it's that, but I'm I'm
usually pretty good at turning the page and moving forward.
You know. It's if things if things do ind in
a difficult way, which just it's it's just is uh,
it's it's just to me. It's it's this great motivation
(10:06):
to jump into the next thing. And so the next
thing is is a year where you know, there's going
to be amazing opportunity for our team, our guys. You know,
expectations around the world, around the NBA world are going
to be significantly lower. I think we've seen that with
some of the Vegas predictions and wins and all that
(10:27):
kind of stuff. But this is that's why we play
the games, you know, so we're looking forward to it.
Speaker 4 (10:32):
Rick Carlisle, head coach of the Pacers, joined us on
the Pale Stickers Hotline. Rick, you appeared on Kellen Coover's
podcast what you already talked about? But in that same podcast,
you mentioned that the starting two guard position is Benedict
Matherin's to lose, and you mentioned that he's a natural scorer,
and within that answer you also mentioned that he's a
that he can score and get budgets in a rat game.
(10:54):
And who were asking, I think last week, what is
a rat game? Number one and then number two? Uh
do you see this?
Speaker 2 (11:01):
How do you use this opportunity for banding mathering?
Speaker 3 (11:04):
Well, first of all, if you guys are not subscribed
to basketball, she wrote on Patreon, you're making a big mistake.
In fact for this, I might even I might even
pay for both of your subscriptions. I have such great
belief that this would be as knowledgeable as you guys are.
(11:24):
This would this would increase your knowledge of the NBA
and particularly the Pacers in an exponential fashion. I mean,
what Caitlin is doing with her site is really is
really amazing, the detail, you know, the writing. I think
I mentioned on the podcast that you know, she's been
approached by multiple NBA teams that have tried to hire her,
(11:49):
but she is she stayed true to her mission, which
is to study the pacers at the most meticulous level.
She loves writing and a great writer. And you know,
every time we play a game, there's a there's a
story that comes out. If you subscribe to her site,
it comes out, it comes directly to your email, and
(12:11):
then usually there's a podcast that follows, you know. So
I'm I'm really I'm really in awe of what she's
doing there, and so I would encourage you guys to subscribe,
or anyone to subscribe to that matter.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
Anyway.
Speaker 3 (12:28):
Yeah, So the the question about Ben, Yeah, you know, Ben,
it's important to Ben that to be a starter. I
know that, you know, he's told me that you guys
can see that, you know, with the way that he plays.
So yeah, it's you know why why wait, you know
he's the starter on day one. You know. The caveat
(12:51):
to that is that he's got to continue to move
his game in the direction of being a highly functioning
part of the Indian Ana Pacers. And that's gonna that's
gonna mean that he's got to continue to play faster
and faster. He's got to run faster, run harder. He's
gotta he's got to play off with quick decisions. He's
(13:11):
going to be guarding a lot of great players, you know,
And you think about it with Tyree's being out this
year and Nemhar the starting point. So you know, Andrew
Nemar guarded the best perimeter player almost always. He's either
here Ani Smith. But you know, with with Tyres out,
(13:34):
you know Andrew, it's gonna put him on different matchups
sort of organically. And now Ben is going to be
guarding guys that are better players. So this would be
a great challenge. You know, Ben told us when when
he was drafted that he wanted to be coach hard,
he wanted to be great, you know, and and and everything,
(13:54):
and and I've always took him at his word. You know,
we have high standards for him. Uh, but he's gotta
he's gotta, he's gotta, he's gotta keep he's got to
keep pushing it. He's got to keep pushing it. You know,
his gifts are pretty clear. I mean, he's a great
transition player. He shoots the ball long range with ease.
(14:16):
I mean he shoots the ball from thirty five feet,
you know, just just he can just pop up and
just you know, flip in a jump shot, and so
you know, those those are the big strengths to his
offensive game. And so you know the situations where he
at times gets into trouble, driving into crowd, stuff like that,
(14:38):
you know that stuff's got to go away, and we're
gonna work with him hard on that. He's having a
great summer. He's busting his body, he's gonna he's actually
up in I think he's in Toronto right now spending
time with Team Canada. I don't think he's participating in
the World Championships, but he's there. And I don't know
that he's participating in the World Couts. Buddy is there
(15:02):
watching if he's not participating, and and he's uh, I believe,
you know, I would certainly have to believe that he's
a big part of Team Can in the future. So anyway,
all good stuff on Ben Mathern. I know that Kevin
is the president of the Ben Mathern Fan Club indeed,
and so uh so it's so there, so there we go.
(15:23):
And so as president of the fan club, you should
you should be pushing all the all of your all
of your members to uh to hit him on social
media about the things that he needs to do to
continue to work to be great.
Speaker 1 (15:36):
Move that to the top of the monthly meeting coming
up here next week.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
Well, I will say this, ritt, I subscribe to basketball.
Speaker 4 (15:41):
She wrote, actually have a shirt as well, Kaitlin Cooper
so been a long time subscriber for probably over a
year and a half or two years at this point.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
And one quick follow up, what is a rat game?
Speaker 3 (15:51):
Can?
Speaker 4 (15:51):
We were debating this last week and we have no
idea how you view that or what that means.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
Yeah, I mean no disrespect to rats, but yeah, it's
a it's a term. It's a term to me that
that means. Let's let's say you're playing a team that's
a very hard playing, physical team, that does a lot
of switching and does a lot of things to junk
up the game, and it's just gonna be it's gonna
(16:21):
be a game that looks like it's a little detached
and a little clunky on a lot of on a
lot of levels. I mean, he he's a guy that
is in the in the flow or non flow of
a game like that. He's gonna find ways to get
the ball in the basket and get to the free
throw line. And it's a it's really it's a great
compliment to him. And so you know, look, we saw
(16:45):
it a little bit in game seven of the of
the finals. I mean it was physical, there was a
lot of switching, and he ended up being our leading
scorer in the finals. But you know, we don't we
don't want to see a bunch of games where he's
the leading scorer and we lose. You know, we we
we want him to keep developing the acumen to be
(17:06):
a great scorer, but to be but to be a
part of the team's success and to you know, meld
those those individual abilities with the the style that our
that our team has developed, which so many people have
have become smitten.
Speaker 1 (17:24):
With, uh with the important caveat of no disrespect to
rats Rick Carlisle with us here on the Payless Slickers
hotline just a few more minutes. We appreciate the Pacers
head coach joined us here for a summer combo. This
is our first chat since really, I guess right after
the playoffs, and obviously the first big bit of news
in the offseason was Miles Turner joining the Bucks. Where
(17:46):
you as stunned, as it sounded like Kevin Pritchard was
when he found out that news.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
Yeah, I was. I was surprised. I was surprised, But
it's pretty clear what happened. You know, Milwaukee the way
to come up with enough cap space in a very
short period of time. It's my guess that that they
did all this, you know, they did it by waving
Lillard and stretching him and all that kind of stuff
(18:13):
created whatever it was, twenty some million extra in space.
And and I think what I think what happened was,
you know, they they talked to Miles of agent or
Miles and his agent, and said, look, we have this offer.
This is a number, you know, presumably a number that
(18:33):
you guys are trying to get to. We need to
know that if we offer this, you guys are gonna
take it and you can't shop it, you know, And
that's that's a that's a frequent you know, a tactic
of of negotiation. And so pretty clearly they they took
they took the offer. It's their right to do it.
(18:56):
We'll certainly miss Miles. You I know that there were
a lot of there was a lot of talk about,
you know, some of the some of the things that
he said as he left. But I just I just feel, look,
we're gonna give Miles the benefit of the doubt on
all that stuff. The guy is the guy was a
was a pacer through and through for ten years. He
(19:20):
lived and breathed that he disregarded trade rumors. You know,
when they when they happened, he was all about he
was all about Indiana all the time. Sometimes things in
the business aspect of basketball become super dynamic and nuclear,
and they happened on a you know, on they turn
(19:44):
on a dime. But you know, everything that Kevin Pritchard
said is absolutely true. This this this franchise was was
ready to go as far into the taxes as we
needed to keep him. But you know, things can change quickly.
They did. He's moved on. It's a division rival, so
(20:07):
there's always gonna be plenty to talk about there. But
Kevin and Chad were able to acquire Jay Huff, who's
certainly not the experienced level Miles Turner is not the
exact same kind of player, but he can make threes,
and he can protect and protect the rim, and he
can do some other things that are strengths of his
and so we feel like he's a piece that can
(20:29):
that can work for us. We don't know exactly who's
gonna start at five, but I've had seasons where I've
had three centers and pretty much consistently played three centers
every game. It was I think it was two thousand
and thirteen fourteen with the Dallas Mavericks. Sam Dallenbar was
(20:50):
our starter. Dwan Blair and Brandon Wright played back up,
and there were way more game many There were way
more games than there weren't where all three of those
guys played. And so you know, maybe the center position
is more of a Swiss army knife type thing. We'll
(21:11):
have to see and uh, but we have we have Huff,
we have Isaiah Jackson, we have Wiseman Tony Bradley's going
to be in camp, So there's four guys that are
going to be slugging it out for the you know,
presumably three center spots. So as we get into it,
we'll see what's what. But you know, nothing but love
from from my perspective. From on Miles Turner. I had
(21:33):
a really nice, nice conversation with him after, you know,
after he made the decision to leave, and uh, what
a lovable guy.
Speaker 1 (21:43):
So we'll miss him last one, coach, and again, thank
you for the time. Unfortunately we didn't get to see
him late in that playoff run due to injury, but
certainly minutes now with that second unit with Benedict going
to the starting lineup, are there for a guy like
Jarris Walker. How is he doing health wise? And where
do you want to see growth for him entering I
(22:05):
believe his third season.
Speaker 3 (22:07):
Yeah, his health is is is good right now. You
know that that was a serious injury that he suffered
in Game six, and I think it's important to note
that Jar's had a very productive year. He played I
think over fifteen and a half minutes a game. You know,
(22:28):
he played very effectively during certain stretches of the playoffs.
He was a big factor in Game four at Milwaukee,
where you know, we were able to get ourselves in
a position to steal a road game that was a
that was a big deal. And you know, he played
well throughout the year. And so the big things for
(22:50):
him are going to be conditioning, motor, toughness, rebounding, defense,
and in a real high degree of understanding of the
importance of possession of the ball. And that's not just him,
that's everybody. I think with what we're going into this year,
(23:11):
you know, we're going to be without a guy in
Tyrese who's historically great with his ability to do amazing
things on the basketball floor, creating pace, scoring, getting the
ball of the rim, hitting floaters, throwing it ahead to teammates,
(23:33):
getting assists, and with the usage rate that he has,
his ability to have security with the ball and not
turn the ball over is like you know, has been
has been historic, and so our team is going to
have to really develop an even greater understanding and appreciation
(23:55):
of the importance of possession. But in a year like this,
so we have coming up, Jarrius is a very important
guy because he can play multiple positions really including point guard.
I mean, you know, he handles the ball that well,
but I want I want to see him be able
to get a rebound at one end and put on
(24:16):
the burners and go coast to coast with speed and
attack the rim at the other. I think he has
the ability to do that. So I know he's working
on those those that those things along with a lot
of other things. But it took him a good two
months before he was back on the court going on
and so, uh, it's going to be an active end
(24:39):
of the summer for him. But you know, he's people
should be excited. People should be excited about Johnny Furfey
after watching him in the Summer League. I think furfy
is another guy that you know, he's he's a lot
like Ben Sheppard. He's a he's a he's a seamless
fit into our our system. He runs, he rebounds, he
(25:02):
passes it, he moves it. He's a great cutter. He
doesn't need the ball to be effective, you know. And he's, uh,
he's a lunch pale guy.
Speaker 4 (25:11):
Man.
Speaker 3 (25:11):
He's he's going to work so and some of the
stuff that that he did in the Summer League, you know,
some of the dunks, you guys saw those pretty cool,
pretty pretty, pretty awesome stuff, and so he's become a
fan favorite. And then we've got the two rookies. You know,
we've got Peter and and Jones. We like those guys
a lot. Both of them improved as the summer league
went on, So a lot of opportunity, you know, a
(25:35):
lot of excitement from my perspective. We'll see what the
schedule shows tomorrow. The good news is on opening night
we at least we get Oklahoma City and a back
to back. You know, they're getting they're getting their rings
the night before, and so we'll have to try to
figure out a way to take advantage of.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
That last last one.
Speaker 1 (25:54):
Then again, we appreciate the time. What's left about a
month ish to go in the off seasons or anything,
and you're looking forward to away from the floor before
training camp starts up. I assume late September.
Speaker 3 (26:07):
Well, Abby Carlisle arrives tonight down here where we are,
and she spent the summer taking some summer classes in
New York City at NYU, and so she'll be down
here for a week or so, and then we'll drive
her down to I should say, up to Charlottesville and
we'll spend some time there and then eventually meander back
(26:30):
to Indianapolis. We're really looking forward to to getting back
and getting going. But you know, it's it's been it's
been quite a year. If you go back a full
year to you know where we are now. So you know,
we're mid August. You think about mid August twenty twenty four,
(26:51):
and you know the way everybody looked at last season,
you know, coming off the conference finals, there was anticipation,
and then you know, we got into the season and
then it was we were ten and fifteen and we
were banged up, and you know, it didn't seemed to
be a whole lot of good stuff happening. And then
(27:12):
you know, we started to get healthy, and you know,
Nemar came back, and you know, we we went from there.
We won three games on the on the road to
uh to get to five hundred at Christmas, pretty much
similar thing we did in the previous year, and then
a lot of great things happened. So this year is
(27:32):
is another mystery at this point, but we're looking forward
to putting the pieces together.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
Well, we got this text during the convos. Please tell
Rick this run inspired me and my group of friends
to get back in the gym and start hooping again,
so the inspiration is impacted the local men's leagues here
in the great state of Indiana. Coach enjoyed the time
with abby safe travels back up here a little bit
later in September and greatly appreciate the time. Thank you.
Speaker 3 (27:59):
Cheers guys make caure
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